Activist wears suit of his own garbage

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Rob Greenfield calls himself an activist and an adventurer. And, yes, he wears all his trash -- 42 pounds and counting of it -- strapped to his body.

"The most difficult part is the bending of the knees because of the trash covering the knees and the elbows," he says.

The average American creates four and a half pounds of trash every day, but rarely do we have to confront any collection of our personal waste all at once.

"Most of us never really think about it," Rob says. "We just throw it in the garbage can and never think about it again."

To help us remember how much we waste, Rob traveled to New York from Wisconsin wearing a special suit built to hold all the rubbish he produces in a month.

"Actually, I've said multiple times: In my life, being covered in trash is more enjoyable than being without it," he says.

In a city with mandatory recycling, "Trash Me" Rob rides the subway, "Trash Me" Rob walks to appointments, "Trash Me" Rob sits in Starbucks, proving he is just like us only covered in trash.

And on Monday, "Trash Me" Rob stood in a bar in Williamsburg and answered questions from mostly adoring fans come to see this walking landfill 15 days into his hero's journey of junk.

"The idea is to make a visual example and not a smelly example," Rob says.

And so Rob cleans every item before trashing it on his person. An avid recycler, Rob has had to adopt the habits of the average American throwing away 85 percent of the recyclable materials he encounters.

Now at the halfway point in his tour de waste and on pace to finish with nearly 90 pounds of trash strapped to his body, Rob disposes of any self-consciousness, imagines foodstuffs sold in lighter packaging, and welcomes the incoming cooler weather.

"I can't imagine what Day 30 is going to be like," Rob says. "I knew it would get harder with every day and I know that right now is at the point where it's going to get a lot harder."